Legendary Wolverine Book 1
by Avatar Conner
Summary: James Hudson/Howlet the Son of Wolverine finds himself transported to the world of Avatar. But he did not go alone, set before the Secret Wars tore the Marvel Universe apart and Korra's adventure, James was trapped in the Avatar's universe. The first mutat in the Avatar world, wow will the world react (not related to LSM or SoW stories.)
1. Chapter 1: Water

**III**

 **O**

He didn't want to get up. He just wanted to sleep in bed for until noon. It was Friday and James didn't have school, he deserved to sleep in. But he woke up just as the sun was beginning to rise. Whether it was him being used to waking up this early for school, or something else but he didn't want to move his butt.

But he's been trying to sleep for the past hour and a half. James finally decided to get up out of bed, throwing my covers off, he slipped out of bed and walked to the dresser. Taking out some jeans, socks, and a grey, long sleeve shirt and a light blue hoodie, he looked at the mirror on his door.

His dark brown hair was messy with bed head, using his fingers as a comb he brushed it over to his right. Opening the door, he walked down the hall past the bathroom, his mom and dad's room, and his little brother's room.

His name is James Hudson, and he's a Canadian. His Adoptive parents, Jerry and Heather, took him in back when he was a infant, it wasn't until he turned thirteen a few months ago they told him the truth. he wasn't angry about it, in fact he had his suspicions. Mainly because his stepmother had ginger red hair and his stepfather was a blonde like his brother Sammy.

As for his birth father, he didn't know much about him, my parents said that they did and he was a good man. However he was a solider first and knew he couldn't be a father with his lifestyle. James respected that in a weird way, he knew he couldn't be there for his son so he gave him to someone who could.

His name was Logan.

As he made my way down the stairs to the front door of the house he slipped on his old sneakers and opened the door and stepped outside. The Hudson family lived outside of Quebec, the city was a fairly short drive away though.

As he walked down the side of the road, a few cars passed him by on their way towards the city. A small worn path trailed off the road, walking into the brush, he felt the northern wind blow over his clothes and through his hair. A bit of snow from the tree above hit his shoulder, he simply brushed it off, living up here, one could get used to the cold pretty quick, but it seemed James did not get cold as quickly as others do. His brother made a joke once that I must be part Griz.

Following the path, he soon found himself at a small pond. It was a little hideaway he discovered a few years ago, during the summer he would come down here with his brother and they'd fish. He eventually stopped coming along, but James still came here on his own from time to time.

Walking over to a downed tree, he used his sleeve to brush snow off the bark before taking a seat. It was still fairly dark out, the sunlight didn't even touch him, but he wasn't dead tired anymore as well. Inhaling through his nose, he blew the air out through his mouth.

Part of his brain was telling him that he was stupid for coming outside in the cold when he instead could be at home in a nice warm bed. A nice, cozy bed with blankets. But the peacefulness of this little pond always made him feel…..better. It's not descriptive, but it was the best way he could describe it.

A howl in the distance made his head snap up, wolves. It was dangerous it is to live in Alaska. Well mostly because of the dangerous wildlife in Canada, James knew what to do in case he came across a dangerous animal however.

But that didn't mean he looked for cougars.

So when he heard a very closer howl behind him, he turned around and saw a brown wolf looking at him. James gulped, it growled, his first instinct told him to run like hell, but you NEVER turn your back on a wolf. Mainly because they will outrun you and kill you.

You keep eye contact, and back away slowly.

So James eyes locked with the wolves, He slowly backed away as it stalked forward. "Easy buddy, I'm just gonna-" James started before he took another step back on the slope of the pond. The teen fell into the water. This sudden action caused the wolf to pounce over the log and into the now wet prey.

It's claws cut into his chest, James cried out as his flesh was torn. It's jaws locked around his shoulder as it pulled and ripped at the skin. Instincts took over, James kept punching the animal in the neck, he kept hitting it as the wolf it pulled it's head back and ripped his skin and hoodie.

James wailed from the pain.

Skint!

The wolf yelped loudly before falling on top of James. The wounded teen writhed in pain, somehow slipping out from under the now dead animal. His hand flew to his shoulder, his other one was stinging like crazy. Looking at his hand he saw it was covered in blood. He didn't dare look at the wound, either out of fear or unwillingness, he didn't know.

James managed to sit up straight, looking at the wolf, he saw it's right side smeared with blood, the fur turning from light brown to dark red. Three cuts leaked blood, from the same side he kept punching it from. He raised his right hand to see if it was wiry from whatever killed the beast.

His hands were bloody. From both their blood.

Between the knuckles of his first were three…...metal claws…..each of them sharpened to a point with a slight curve to them. Three of them, He had three claws poking out of my hand. He of course responded as anyone would.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

The rush of adrenaline made the other hand sting as three claws also emerged from between his knuckles. "GAAAHHH! WHY?!" James screamed as he grabbed his other hand. Now both hands were bleeding, and the claws both were coaxed in the teen's blood.

James slowly got up from the red tinted water and waded out from the pond. He looked down at my shaking hands, the claws dripping with blood. The teen looked at my shoulder, wondering if most of the blood came from me or the wolf, only to see that the wound had healed!

"Ok…...so how the hell do I put them back in?!" He yelled out.

III

O

When James got back home, it didn't take long for his family to discover my…..condition. "Does it hurt?" Sammy asked, James's younger brother had blonde hair like father, it was long and was parted down the middle and a few freckles across his nose and cheeks. Sam was only two years younger than his stepbrother, he was Heather and Jerry's son, he knew James wasn't his biological brother.

He's still a tool to him, showing him that things were still the same between the two.

"They're sharp knives coming out of my knuckles. What do you think?!" James asked, racing my hands up and accidentally stabbing the fan over the table. He quickly pulled back, him and his brother looked at one another, both of us sharing a look of shock. "Say. Nothing." the older brother threatened, pointing at him with my claws.

Their mom and dad had told James to try and keep calm and sit down while they talk. He took a shaky breath before letting my head rest on the table, his palms resting on the back of his head, the claws grazing one another slightly. "Sam could you leave me alone? I…..I gotta process this." he asked, the step brother gave him a look of concern before standing up and walking by him.

"It'll be ok man. We'll get you declawed." he said, patting James on the back before leaving him alone. After he left, James craned my head backed in my seat. _This can't be happening, this has to be some sort of bad dream or something!_

"I just got off the phone with her, she'll be here pretty soon." Heather said.

He snapped his eyes open, that was my mom's voice! 'Good…..how did this happen? James hasn't shown any signs of….'

 _Dad….wait they knew this would happen?! How?! Wait, how can I even hear them? They're in the next room behind a closed door, I usually can't hear them from that far away._

Today just seems to be getting worse and worse. James was about to run my hands down his face but stopped himself, he didn't want to cut himself with his own claws. Holding his hands out in front of him, he looked at my claws, they didn't hurt now thankfully. But seeing them…..it still scares him.

 _Well they came out, so they have to go back in right?_

He took a deep breath through his nose, and exhaled through his mouth in a long drawn out blow. He watched as the metal slowly retracted back into his forearms, the holes caused by them quickly sealed back up. Like they are never there. As soon as they were gone, the door opened.

In stepped his mom and dad, his mom had red ginger hair with freckled cheeks, green eyes hidden behind a pair of glasse with concern. Taking a seat on each side of him, his mom put a hand on his shoulder while his dad ruffled my hair. "It's going to be alright bud." His stepfather said reassuringly.

James looked at him skeptically, "How!? I got fricking claws! How is that even possible?" he asked, trying my best not to panic. If relaxing made them go back in, then panicking would probably make them pop out again.

James's stepfather was always a calm man, in part it was his time in the army that shaped that. He was part of the government, Department H, a response force to meta human events. It was made back when the Avengers was formed, his father was head of operations there. He even got to meet a few of the members of Superhero teams over the years..

"James you're going to be fine. I promise." he said reassuringly, the teen visibly calmed down from the reassurance. "Listen, we have someone who's coming by in a bit who…...is a expert on this sort of thing." he explained.

James was somewhat unnerved by that, 'this sort of thing' sounded like another way of saying 'freak'. The three of them waited at the table, his mother asking him if he wanted anything to drink or eat to try and help him stay calm. He was a mutant, he's heard of this happening but it had become more rare over the past few years that he never really had a fear for it.

Not that there was anything wrong with mutants, but he had sharp and dangerous looking claws that could kill someone, that wasn't exactly something to show off.

James's head snapped up as he heard footsteps at the front door, the footsteps stepped before the door. They went off to the side, James heard the crunching of snow going around the house. "Um…...guys, I'm gonna get some air out back." he said before standing up and walking out the back door.

Closing the door behind him, he walked around the side of the goose to where the person who was at the door moments ago was heading. Rounding the house, he found no one was there. However in the snow where footprints leading away from the house.

James followed them, around his house was a large yard that led into the forest. Walking through the shrubbery, James followed the footprints, hopping over a fallen tree and down a hill before pushing through a few tree branches and nearly stumbling into a clearing.

He wasn't alone, standing in front of him was a girl. She was older than him, with long black hair, green eyes, and had fair skin and an athletic frame. Her clothing consisted of a button up winter coat, cargo pants, and pink gloves. "Um…..hi." James greeted.

"Hey. You must be James." she greeted, making the teen nod. She could tell he was nervous, she raised her hands in a non threatening manner. "My name's Laura, Laura Kenny." she introduced. James still did not look entirely calm, but he seemed better. She turned her palm towards herself as she took the off her left hand.

Two blades popped out from between her knuckles.

James's eyes widened in shock, his surprise causing his own claws to pop out. "GAH! Sonofvabitch that hurts!" he yelled out as he fanned his hands, unable to touch where his claws emerged.

"Yeah it's a literal pain at first. But it gets duller. Instead of knives coming out of cuts, it feels like papercuts." she explained, sheathing her own claws. James looked down at his own blades, he wiggles his hands, trying to urge them back in. "Just focus." Laura said.

James stopped struggling and imagined them going back in, they slid back inside him. "So….you're like me?" he asked, somewhat still in awe. She nodded, "But how did this happen?! I-It just happened today and-" he plopped down in the snow, his hands over his face. "I don't think I can handle this." he breathed out.

Laura walked over in front of him and kneeled down, "Hey, hey, hey, don't worry. Your dad called me and told me what happened, I'm here to explain." she began, the teen dropping his hands to look at her. "What do you know about your father? Your birth father I mean?" she asked, wondering just how much the Hudsons had told him.

"His name was Logan….and he met my dad in the service." he answered.

Laura stared at him expectantly, as though there was more to say. When he kept quiet her expression changed from expectant to disappointed. "Your kidding…...your dad dropped the ball. Big time." she said, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose.

She took a breath and began to explain, how over one hundred years ago James Howlett was born into the world, and how he discovered he had the ability to heal from everything, that also meant the aging process. Logan was over a hundred years old, he served in both world wars, the civil war, the cold war, and the Vietnam war before joining up with a department of the government called Weapon X. As she talked, James couldn't believe that he didn't realize it sooner, three long sharp claws who else could it be.

He blinked, "Um…...wasn't he a dude?"

"Yeah and I'm not. Obviously. But look…...Wolverine is your father…...wow there's no other way to say that is there?" she asked out loud as soon as she said it.

James meanwhile was in a mixed state, shock over the revelation, anger that he hadn't known about it beforehand, and strangely a sense of excitement. His father was a superhero, "But wait, why didn't he….you know….raise me?

Laura raised her hands in a calming manner, "Look it's a long story. And I'll be happy to tell it but we should get you back home." she said before standing up and raising a hand to him. James looked at it before clasping it, Laura had to dig into the ground to pull him up, surprising her a little.

 _Metal Claws, and skellington maybe? Guess you got more of Logan in you than we thought._

III

O

"Why did he leave me with you guys though?" James asked his parents. Laura, James, Jerry, and Heather had all taken their seats in the dining room table, Laura had just finished explaining Logan's story to him. He was sad to hear that his father had been a test subject, but he was more curious as to why Logan would leave him.

"Logan had a lot of enemies, not all of them were superpowered, but enough were. He just wanted to keep you safe James." Laura explained to the teen as his mother put a hand on his shoulder.

His stepfather nodded, "Back then, we were trying to have a baby, but when Logan came to me and explained that he wanted you to have a loving home…..how could I say no?" he asked, making the teen smile at his father's words.

James shifted his gaze to Laura, "So what happens now?" he asked simply.

Laura looked at both his parents, they nodded solemnly. "Well…..I can teach you how to control your gifts. Have it so that your claws don't come out every time someone jumps out and yells 'boo'...or…...I could train you, you could come with me and I could teach you how to fight, and who you should fight." she offered.

James looked at both his parents unbelievingly, they wouldn't be ok with this would they?!

His mother smiled, "What? It's not like you can get hurt." she pointed out.

James looked at Laura, she gave him a small smile, "Your choice….you get a costume."

"Why would I want a costume?" James asked.

"Who doesn't?" Laura asked.

James thought it over, was he comfortable with having a normal life, knowing that he could do more?

"...sign me up." How long would be be gone anyway?

III

O

It was years, heartbreaking, brutal, violent years. Soon after meeting Laura he met Logan, it was awkward at first of course. They sat outside the cabin they were holding up in when Laura broke the silence, saying that he could do much worse for an absent father. After they both asked her what the hell, they started talking, they talked about many things, from which decade was his favorite to live in to which hockey team was is favorite. James finally asked about his mother, a japanese woman named Mariko who Logan loved with all his heart. Soon after he suggested that they go on a trip to Japan at one point so he could learn more about his mother's lifestyle. Logan was more than for the idea, he and James spent a summer in Japan, and the young man loved every second of it.

Learning the language was a challenge, however Logan was patient with him and eventually it was almost a second language to him. James eventually sought to learn the same code that Logan did, the Bushido code of the samurai. James and Logan both found the experience to be great, bonding over the ideals of the warriors. When he and Logan returned, the father and son were closer than ever before.

Of course being a mutant he also attended the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, and later the Jean Grey School for higher learning as a teacher, while he did partake in training new recruits, he rarely joined the team on missions. Like his father, he too prefered to be on his own, but when he was a part of a team he worked well with them. He joined the X-men on numerous adventures, seeing them like a second family.

He also found out more about his own mutation through the school, like Logan his body had bone claws, however unlike his father James' claws and bones were covered in proto adamantium, the same type that Captain America's shield was made with. And unlike wolverine's it wasn't susceptible to magnetism.

He also found out that he had foot claws, however it he still hadn't found out the exact way to pop them out yet. But even without them, he could still fight, with training courtesy of Kitty Pryde (one of his favorite teachers and one of his best friends) and Laura, he was well on his way to being a martial arts expert. He even got along with Scott Summers very well….well before the Skism.

However, James's life had his fair share of tragedy as well. His half brother Daken, the one who impersonated Wolverine during the Dark Reign found out about him, and he was not happy about his new sibling. James came home one day to find his home turned into a slaughterhouse, and Daken standing in the middle with a shit eating grin. He doesn't remember much through the blood, tears, and sheer rage he fought against his brother until he plunged his blades in his brain and his own heart had been torn out.

When he woke up, James found Daken was gone but Logan was there to help console him, he lived at the School since then. the other X-men on the team gave him their best condolences afterward, but James only had one thing on his mind, Killing Daken. In the most slow, painful, and horrible way he could come up with. He found out he was in Madripoor, trying build up a criminal empire that he was the head of. James butchered his way through his organization until he reached Daken himself.

It wasn't their last fight however, for the next few months the pair fought again and again, James was hellbent, not stopping until Daken was dead for good. This went on until James was taken onto X-Force with his father to help take on the Masters of Evil who had kidnapped Kid Apocalypse (long story) who was being led by Sabertooth and Daken. That was their last fight, ending with James drowning him in a puddle. But after the battle, James found no solace with himself.

He had killed his own brother….but it didn't last.

To be fair it shouldn't have surprised him when Daken reportedly came back to life, the school was named after a woman who came back to life a number of times after all, but this time, he didn't go on the hunt. Instead he stayed at the school, joining the X-men while his father took a leave of absence after a virus wiped out his healing factor.

Three months later, Logan died taking down a Weapon X reboot.

James and Laura both mourned the loss of their father, but they both knew that Logan was finally at rest.

III

O

James rubbed his hands together as he looked down at the Stark Industries lab facility, he and Laura had heard buzzing that Daken was planning to steal something to the Kingpin in order to help reassemble what was left of Sabertooth's international criminal empire. He still hated Daken, but with Logan dead….he had to at least try to talk to him. And if that didn't work Laura would be there to slice his throat. "Anything?" Laura asked behind him, the young man looked back to see the former assassin inspecting her right hand claws.

They were stationed in the top of a belltower of an abandoned church a few blocks away from the compound, the facility itself was fairly guarded, Tony Stark did not screw when it came to his security. But with Daken's training it would be a challenge, but not impossible to sneak in undetected by the high tech security system. For them however they informed Stark and he had given them the proper clearance to his bioscans so they wouldn't be attacked by security.

"Nothing yet, think he may be onto us?" he asked, looking through the pair of binoculars he had taken with him. James wore a pair of black jeans with a longsleeve shirt with grey arms and a coal grey trso with the sleeves rolled up his forearms. His hair was slightly trimmed with his brown hair combed to the right with a five o'clock shadow on his face. Laura was wearing her X-force suit she had from when she was on the team, minus the domino mask.

Laura retracted her claws and walked to the open archway, "I doubt it, we've been hold up here for the past few weeks, and we made Frost mindwipe the lackey we interrogated. Can't think of how he could know." she said. Emma Frost had erased the memory of them interrogating one of Daken's informats so he wouldn't spill the beans when he saw Daken next. "We are running llow on supplies though, we may need to call takeout if this keeps up." she added, looking at the box of goods they brought for their stakeout.

"If Daken does show up, we won't need to worry-"James started before a loud explosion went off at the left side of the facility. "Ok then nevermind." he said, tossing the binoculars aside and jumping from the belltower with Laura, they hit the church rooftop running at full speed towards the compound. If the explosion on the left side of the building then all attention would be focused from the right side, and that would be the most likely place Daken would infiltrate in from. The pair hopped across the building rooftops towards the facility, taking one last great leap they landed on the other side of the fence inside the stark property. "Thank god the place runs by itself right?" he asked Laura as they rounded the right of the building.

"That's Stark for you. Stay together ok?" she asked as they rounded the corner of the building,, they saw a garage door had been jimmied open, walking over James lifted the metal sheet door up so Laura could slip in under the door. She held it up from her side as James did the same, the inside of the facility was a thing of future. There were a number of projects being worked on behind plated glass. Flying objects, hard light constructs, personal holograms and other scientific achievements, but as soon as the pair caught Daken's scent their claws popped out, following the smell through the halls of facility, they came across a few robotic sentries that had been cut and sliced with precision.

When they came to a door that had been cut off it's hinges, James and Laura looked at one another before nodding. James retracted his claws before entering the room. Inside there was a large machine with a gyroscopic glass containing something that looked like a black hole that was connected to a large haul that displayed a number of readings that James couldn't possibly comprehend. "JAMES LOOK-" Laura started before a sliding metal door came down in the doorway, James turned to see Daken beside the door panel.

Daken was a fit man, only a few years older than James physically but was much older in actual terms of age. He had black hair that was cut into a mohawk, his blue eyes stared back into James's brown ones. Daken wore a simple black dress shirt,grey pants, and matcing jacket, "Daken."

"Brother." the half brother greeted back, a small smirk on his lips. James wanted to punch it off his face, "So…...our father is dead…...good riddance." he said, James gritted his teeth at his words. ""Please did you expect anything different?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest.

James sighed, "I hoped I would…...Darken, your my brother."

"Really now? You're just realizing that?" he asked, digging into the fellow mutant nerves.

"No but I am realizing that you ARE my brother…...you killed my entire family…...but that was out of hate, you hated me because Logan accepted me…..but he accepted you too." he said, trying to get through to his brother, usually at this point the two would be trying to kill one another with little results on either side.

"Spare me." Daken snapped at him, "Logan accepted me as a mistake. I accepted him as the reason my mother is dead, he's the reason your's is too. All he did was ruin people's lives and they treat him like a hero? I'm glad he's dead. I just wished I could do it myself." he said, making James's eyes turn angry and his claws emerge from his fists. Daken just smirked, "There we go."

His two claws were out in an instant and the two were clashing already, James parried and dodged the claws away from him but took the heel slamming into the side of his knee, making him kneel down so the claws of Daken's left hand could cut into the side of his face with enough force to knock him onto his back. James rolled back onto his feet, raising his hands to lock claws with Daken's , the killer smirked as his third claws shot out from his wrist's into James's, the young man grit his teeth before grabbing Daken's fist's with his hands. Pulling his arms outward and Daken forward he headbtted him, making him stumble back as James stood.

The cut on his face stitched itself together, "Dirty tricks. You really have no honor do you welp?" he asked.

James held both his arms out in front of him, "And still more than you do. I don't kill innocents." he replied, making Daken sneer before jumping forward at James. The younger brother sidestepped and swung his right claw around towards Daken, who ducked in response, James's claw slicing into the globe surrounding the dark orb inside. "Um…..whoops." he muttered before the orb broke out and blinded them in a black light.

Laura's claws finally cut through the five inch thick door that she had been cutting at for the past ten minutes. Looking inside however, the room was empty, "James!? Daken!" she called out, but getting no response. As she began searching the room for clues of her brother's' disappearance, she failed to read the label outside the door, ' _Trans-dimensional gateway lab'._

III

O

When James opened his eyes he saw the night sky, he was soaking wet and his entire body hurt like a giant bruise. He tried to remember exactly what happened, _Ok I was fighting Daken, then there was that weird light….then I was…..falling…..yeah I fell. Then I hit the water but I couldn't swim because amy muscles and tended needed to heal…..and then I blacked out._ He thought as he tried to get the details straight. That's when he heard the heavy breathing beside him, he turned over to see a young woman about his age. She had fair skin, her black hair was long and had a small portion of it tied up into ponytail that was over her right shoulder with her bangs cover the corner of her left eye with a few strands beneath her left eye, her clothing was heavy winter gear, a blue coat that had white fur on the cuffs, collar, inner hood, and rim of her jacket. She had on a pair of grey,slightly baggy pants and fur boots, all of which looked soaked and covered with snow.

He suddenly realized the ground around them was covered in snow, the air was freezing, Canada was never this cold. She turned her head over, her blue eyes looked into his, "You *gasp* *gasp* your heavier than you look." she breathed out. James was also breathing hard, he suddenly broke into a laugh, the girl looked at him strangely. "Ok, what's so funny?" she asked.

James's laughter died down to a small chuckle, "I have no idea….you saved me from drowning huh?" he asked, she nodded, still trying to catch her breath, "Well thanks, I owe you one." he said before letting his head fall back against the snow, he was soaked to the bone like she was, thankfully his power set included being able to survive in the freezing cold. Laura once dumped him naked in Alaska as part as his final test to see if he could survive on his own. "What's your name?" he asked.

She chuckled, "Mia….I'm Mia. You?"

"James…...James is...my…" he trailed off, his eyes feeling more and more heavy within the next few seconds, Mia looked over with worry. Sitting up and rolling onto her side, her glove hit her palm against the side of his face, keeping him awake. "Mmmmnnggg, let me sleep." he groaned out, thinking that getting some sleep would be nice.

Mia slapped him, "No you idiot! You'll freeze to death and I am not hauling your heavy ass all the way to my house without you helping." she said, kneeling beside James and taking his arm and hoisting it over her shoulder before pulling him up with a small grunt of exertion. She dragged him through the snow a few feet before she spoke, "Could use some help." she said, James moved his legs, "Thanks." she said, pulling his arm a little more. James could feel her shivering against his side, the cold was getting to her more than him, and the constant snowfall didn't help. However through the snowfall James saw their destination, a hut that was about the size of a large house was a few feet away.

Walking around the dome house, Mia opened the wooden door to the home and guided him inside. The home was modest, fur pelts lined the walls of the home, a stove in the center of the hut had a fire burning already with bamboo floors and a few lamps spread over the room. Kicking the door shut, they both nearly collapsed in front of the roaring fire. "O-o-ok, n-n-now just s-s-stay here while I get a-a-a blanket." she stuttered out, her teeth chattering from the cold water that she was soaked in.

She tried to stand up again, but James pulled her down, "I got it, just sit here and get warm." he said as he stood up, and walked around the hut to the couch where a large fur blanket was draped over the back, grabbing the thick blue tribal blanket he walked to Mia's kneeling body, her arms wrapped around herself as she shook slightly. Draping the blanket around her, he rubbed er arms over the blanket to try and warm her up.

Mia slowly began to warm up, "Thanks…..cope a feel an I'll throw you out in the cold." she warned, but the small smirk on her face showed she was playing with him. She held out the blanket for him, he looked at her curiously, "You wanna freeze to death? Get in and warm up." she said, James knew he would be ok and wouldn't freeze to death, but he couldn't arouse suspicion from Mai. Kneeling down, he moved himself beside Mai who dropped the blanket over him. The blanket was open to the fire, letting the warmth in.

James rubbed his hands together, looking over he saw Mia was running her hands through her hair, squeezing any excess water out from her black locks, "So…...how did you end up in the ocean?" she finally asked the obvious question. "I saw this big flash of light outside my window I saw something fall into the water, I went out and saw you. How how did you fall into the water?" she asked, looking James in the eyes. The blue ones locked with his, what could he say? He was in New York one second but then he was outside in the freezing waters?

"Honestly? I have no idea whatsoever." he said, it was the truth after all. He had no earthly idea how he winded up in the water when last time he checked he was in a lab fighting Daken was beyond him. Mia's eyes did not leave his for a second. He almost held his breath, hoping that she would believe him but not wanting to show his desperation.

She finally broke eye contact, "Ok. Well to be fair I shouldn't expect you to know I mean you did kinda land in the South Pole, if I were you I don't think I would know what the hell happened." she said, make James stiffen.

He was silent for a few seconds, letting the information sink "I'm sorry where did you say we were?" he asked.

Mai gave him a nervous smile, "Um…...the South Pole."

James blinked before looking back at the fire, "I'm….I think I may need a moment to process this." he said, his brain trying to think of how the hell that could even be remotely true.

III

O

Mia let James stay the night on the couch with the blanket, as long as he made sure the fire didn't go out while they slept. James though had a hard time getting back to sleep after finding out he was in the South Pole, in somewhere called the Southern Watertribe. However he eventually decided that the only thing he could do was sleep for the night and try to learn more about his situation tomorrow. When he woke up, he smelled something cooking, getting up off the seal skin couch, he entered the kitchen to see Mia preparing two plates of food, jerky of some sort with a scrambled egg. She turned to see him walk in, "Oh good, you're awake."

Since James wasn't shivering himself half to death in a ball huddled on the floor she now got a better look at him, he was very fit, about five feet tall, she was maybe a few centimeters shorter than him. "Sorry about the couch, that thing sucks to sleep on." she said as she walked to the short table close to the ground, James sat on the floor with his legs folded under him, a tribe that had Japanese esque customs was strange.

"It's perfectly fine, I can't really complain, you did save me last night." he said gratefully, he managed to kill Daken (temporarily) by drowning him in a puddle, ever since then he's careful around large bodies of water. Metal bones don't exactly help swimming either, "I am grateful that you saved me." he added honestly.

Mia's cheeks heated slightly from his words, "I'm just glad I didn't pull some poor drowned guy out of the water….so you have any idea how you got here? At all?" she asked as James took his chopsticks to eat some of the eggs. He shook his head sadly, "I just remember a city but everything else is just fuzzy. Really tall buildings." he said, he didn't like flat out lying to this young woman but he certainly couldn't tell her the truth. At least not until he knew her opinion on Mutants.

Mia thought for a second, "I guess that would be Republic City. But how you got all the way to the South Pole is beyond me." she said. Republic CIty sounded like this world's version of New York City, it might be worth checking out. But a ship to the city is pretty expensive." she added.

James raised a eyebrow, "How expensive is pretty expensive?" he asked.

Mia raised her hand and gestured around the room, "See this hut? This nice little hut? Took me all the money I had brought with me from the Northern Tribe to get it built, and twice that much to get here." she explained before taking a bite of her jerky. The mutant's hand went to his wallet, he had two hundred bucks on him, but that was even if this world even had cash as it's form of currency. Mia looked him over, "Tell you what, I got a friend at the docks, old man Pao, he thought me how to hunt and that's how I make my money, I bet he could find you a job." she suggested.

James gave her a smile of gratitude, "Mia I would really appreciate that…..what is this anyway it's really good." he asked, holding up the jerky.

"Seal jerky." she replied with a smile.

"...I like this place already." he said before taking a bite out of the meat.

After finishing their food, Mia found a old brown jacket that James could wear outside, upon exiting the hut, James got a good look at the Southern Watertribe. He had expected some huts similar to Mia's but instead it was a miniature city made out of ice, James had never seen something so extraordinary, as Mai led him into town he saw that most of the southerners were friendly, however when he saw a little boy run past them on the street with water hovering in the air behind him, he froze in place.

Mia noticed he stopped and looked at him curiously, "What's wrong with you? You look like you never seen waterbending before." she commented, making the mutant shake his head.

"Sorry, just…..haven't seen a kid that young waterbending." he said, completely lying his way though the conversation. Mia shrugged at this, but meanwhile James was trying to wrap his mind around what he just saw, a kid that young who showed a special power and wasn't even uncommon? He honestly never thought he would see the day. Shaking those thoughts aside, the pair arrived at the bustling docked, boats large and small were scattered on the water. Walking over to a bald man with a buttoned up sailor's coat, overalls, and boots, Mia tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey Pao, how does it go?" she asked in a joking tone, the man turned around, his hace was covered with a white goatee, he smiled at the girl, "Mia, good to see you girl how are you?" he asked before noticing James, "Who's this?" he asked.

"Oh this is James, he's new to the South and he's looking for a job. I was hoping you had a job for him." Mia explained, the older man looked over James,

He ran his hand over his chin as he sized James up, "Are you strong?" he asked, James nodded, the sailor pointed to a net of fish hanging off the side of the dock. Mia rolled her eyes, this was Pao's way of giving someone some humility, he told her if she wanted to be a hunter that she had to find and kill a Polar Bear dog with a knife, she failed of course but it taught her not to 'get too big britches' as Pao said.

"That's a little much isn't it?" Mia asked, folding her arms over her chest as she watched James kneel down and get a good grip on the net. "I mean you'd have to be-" she stopped herself when James hefted the net up and began pulling it like a rope up onto the dock. All activity stopped nearby to watch the young man pull the net, which was holding over three hundred pounds of fish, onto the dock singlehandedly. When he was finished, he looked to Pao.

The old man's mouth opened and closed like the fish he had spent half a hour pulling up onto his ship. "When can you start?"

III

O

James started on the fishing boat the very next day, he was a huge hit with the other fishermen. And after three months he was halfway through with the money for a boat ride to the city. Mia was letting him stay at her place until then, on the couch of course. But if he were being honest? James wasn't sure if he wanted to leave, the tribe was so nice and peaceful, plus a fair amount of the citizens were grateful to him for helping bring in so much fish.

But there was one large glaring problem with this. Daken.

His brother was just as likely as to have be here as well, and Daken probably came to the same conclusion as he was here as well, and the longer he stayed at the South Pole. But then there was the possibility that Daken wasn't here but still, there was a possibility, and if he was being honest he expected the X-Men to appear any day now, they were familiar with parallel dimensions and alternate timelines.

But until then, he enjoyed his time in the tribe. He also used the time he had to look up what he could about this new world. Finding out that there were four types of benders and that they were widely accepted was very shocking considering how Mutants were treated back home. Mia had been instrumental in finding out about how the world worked, but he felt horrible lying to her like he did. In fact he wanted to tell her the truth, she welcomed him into her home, it felt wrong lying.

Mia was a amazing young woman, she was one of the only women who went hunting with the other men, not there was any law but it was certainly uncommon. When he asked her why she let him stay with her one night she simply shrugged, "Why wouldn't I? It's the right thing to do?" she simply stated.

James let his thought's of the last few months drift off as he made his way to Mia's hut, he had finished the day's routine a little early and had collected his pay and decided, usually he would train with his claws but since he had came here he had not popped them since the night he arrived to make sure he still had them. As he neared the hut, he listened briefly for any sounds that told him not to come in. he had almost walked in on Mai dressing at one point, earning him a night kicked out of the hut until he came back the next morning with a heartfelt apology and some well done seal jerky as a small bribe.

He didn't hear the sound of shuffling clothes, or anything that sounded private, but he did hear water running. Opening the door, Mai looked over and nearly jumped, the water splashing back down in the basin on the floor she was sitting at, "Do you just not knock!?" she shouted as James stared at the basin of water in front of her, she followed his gaze and sighed. "Not a damn word ok?"

"You can waterbend!?" James asked surprisingly.

"Can we not talk about this?" she asked, picking up the small tub of water and walking into the kitchen with James following close behind her. She poured the water into the sink and set the container down on the countertop, she looked back to see him in the doorway, "Drop it."

"Why?" he asked, "Mia you have a gift, that's nothing to be ashamed of." he said, Waterbending wasn't rare by any means, there had to be around million of waterbenders in the world at least. Not to mention they were accepted by all nations and people. What was there to be ashamed of?

Her eyes narrowed, "Look it's personal just…..drop it." she said, folding her arms over her chest.

"Mia-" James began.

"JUST DROP IT!" she yelled, the water in the sink shooting up from her sudden outburst and soaking herself with the water. James shut his mouth when she glared at him, "Not. A. Fucking. Word." she threatened before she raised her hand and pulled the water off her clothes, before it could reach the container the water wavered before suddenly falling to the ground in a splash, soaking the floor, "Shit!" she cursed as she reached for a rag and knelt down to clean up the mess, "Fucking useless."

James knelt beside her, "Hey don't be to hard on yourself, it happens." he said sympathetically. He had et a number of young mutants back when he was a X-man who barely had any control over their powers, but they managed to gain control of their powers with a little encouragement.

She scoffed at his words, "Yeah sure. Waterbender that can't bend right….it's pathetic." her tone was bitter, full of venom directed at herself as she wiped up the mess almost robotically. James reached his hand out and put it on her shoulder, making her stop with a small flinch from the unexpected contact.

"Mia…..you are not pathetic." he said earnestly, Mia stared at him. "Look, I get it, you're not a pro at it but it doesn't matter. You think masters get where they are because their naturally gifted? Hell no, they practice, a lot." he said, thinking back to Yukio, the woman in Japan who helped train him in the ways of the ninja. She wasn't a mutant and could hold her own against Logan and him, even after she was confined to a wheelchair for a time she still could fight on their level.

Mia sighed, "James I appreciate it but….there are kids who can waterbend better than me. And i've had to try and do this since I was their age and…..I still can't." she admitted.

 _Had to?_ James thought, he filed that away for later. He was determined however, "Mia you hunt large dangerous animals in freezing cold weather…...and your scared of not being able to waterbend?" he asked, "Look I've seen grown men go to learn how to bend, there's no shame in it." he said, recalling seeing a group of adults learning how to bend the ocean water on his way to the docks one day.

"It's not shame…..it's honor." she admitted, head turning to look at the spilled water. "I'm…..I didn't grow up here in the South, I'm from the sister tribe in the North Pole." she explained as she sat down on the bamboo floor. "My mom was a businesswoman, she ran this big shipping business out on the docks. My dad was a master waterbender….he was pretty strict." she said, refusing to look him in the eyes. James thought back to when she flinched at his little touch, a growl emanated from his throat and he could feel his claws start to toke at his knuckles. If there was one thing he hated it was abuse in any form, she noticed the mean look on his face, "Woah, James you look like you wanna kill someone." she noticed in a surprised voice.

The young man's claws retracted, "Mia…..if you're saying what I think you are…...screw them." he said, making her eyebrows raise up in shock. "Look you are your own woman, your family doesn't define you…..believe me." he said, thinking of all the atrocious acts Daken had done simply to enrage James. It didn't mean that he was a bad person, Daken was just a psychopath, james was perfectly….fairly sane.

Mia slowly smiled as some wetness gathered in the corner of her eye, "James…...thank you…..and i swear if you tell anyone-"

"Secret is safe with me. I promise." he said truthfully, making Mia smile. "You wanna head into town? I kinda want someone else to cook." he asked as he stood up and offered his hand to her. She took it before he helped her up onto her feet. The two went out too a restaurant to eat dinner, James may have spent a little of his boat money but it was worth it.

III

O

It was two weeks after James and Mia talked about her waterbending, with his encouragement her practice had gone from once in awhile to three times a week, and she was showing slow improvement. "The hunting party is going near the forest today so I won't be back until later tonight, so find your own dinner, or better yet make some for me." she said as she pulled the parka down over her head. James held the door open for her as she exited the hut.

"You're the hunter, it's your job to get food." he pointed out, Mia hit his shoulder in response before walking around the hut to the shed where she kept her hunting supplies, a bow and quiver, hunting knife, and a short spear, before heading off towards the edge of town, waving James goodbye as she did. The young man shook his head, "Hell of a girl." he muttered.

James couldn't deny that he fancied the huntress, she was a very kind young woman, she also did save his life sso that was big tick mark in her column as well. But she also was his ONLY friend in the entire world, but there was a big problem. Well six, sharp deadly problems between his knuckles. He couldn't keep this to himself forever, his claws, his healing, his true origins. And if she somehow found out some other way she would hate him for it…..but still, he was a mutant, hate was something that spanned dimensions.

As he neared the docks, he saw Old Man Poe talking to someone, James recognized him as Chief Tonraq, the leader of the Southern Watertribe. James had not talked to him, mainly as to not draw any unwanted attention to himself from the chief of thee entire tribe. He prefered to fly below the radar, not draw attention to himself, "James! There you are!" Pao called out to him as he tried to walk around the two. James mentally slapped himself, he waved over as he approached the two, "Chief this is the boy I was telling you about, strong as a moose-lion this one!" he said, patting James's shoulder.

James gave a respectful bow to the chief, "It's an honor to meet you Chief Tonraq." he greeted.

Tonraq gave him him a nod, "Nice to meet you James Pao's told me that you've been pulling your weight with the fishing crew, I'm glad to hear it." he said gratefully. The man turned to Pao, "Now as I was saying we need to recall all ships, I just got word that there's a snowstorm heading down from the north." he said, catching James's attention. He had witnessed two snowstorms since coming here, they were so bad that he couldn't leave the hut with Mia ,

 _Oh shit Mia!_

"Chief Tonraq, my friend Mia went out with her hunting party before I left." he said, making the chief's eyes widen at the news.

"The storm will be here in a hour and a half, we need to find them before the storm hits, I'll get a search party together." he said before striding off to assemble any able bodies that could help search. James chased after him, "Sir I want to help." he proclaimed, Tonraq eyed the boy before nodding. He needed all the hands that he could get and any volunteers could help. After getting Tonraq's blessing he ran ahead towards the hut of Mia. By now he had memorized her scent, when he reached the home he followed her tracks in the snow.

III

O

Just as Tonraq said the storm rolled in hour and a half later, James was following the snowmobile tracks at the time along with the fumes they made. When the storm hit he couldn't see more than ten feet away and the tracks were gone. But that didn't stop him, laced in the smell of diesel was her scent, Mia was still out here. He had ran across the other members of her hunting party and helped make sure they had fortified themselves in tents to ride out the storm.

Hopefully Mia would get in one as well before he found her, as he trotted through the snowbank, the now was getting deeper, but nothing James hadn't been accustomed to. As he passed a pine tree, he heard something crunch in the now behind him and give a low growl, turning around he saw a animal with white fur, sticky front legs, thiner hind legs, a huge frame, a snout like a bear but with floppy ears like a dog, and it was covered in scars. It was a Polarbear-Dog.

The creature was massive, it had only one functioning eye that was locked with his, James could feel it was angry, it was wounded, a arrow stuck out of it's side. One of Mia's.

James felt his blood boil but remained calm, there was no blood on the creature's paws or snout, Mia must have seen it and attacked with the others, but instead of running it must have charged. "Easy big guy I just-" he started before the beast lunged forward and swung his front paw, it's claws slicing into James's torso and making blood spurt out onto the snow.

The mutant hunched over, steadying himself on one hand as the hound stalked around him, James let out a primal growl, "Ok pal don't say I didn't-" he started before a spear was thrown over his head and embedded into the snow in front of him, making the hybrid animal retreat back into the storm for the time being.

"JAMES!" the young man turned in time to have Mia nearly run into him, falling onto her knees before him when she saw all the blood, "Oh my god…...James just, just, stay still, I'll get some snow and-" she began before she saw the claw marks on his skin stop bleeding and the skin reform without a scar as though it never happened. Mia looked at the wound, then at James, the look of devastation on his face made her stare. "H….How…" she started before James turned around.

The Polarbear Dog was bag, and it swiped the spear aside unafraid, suddenly James was thirteen years old again and he was facing the world that made him bring out his powers. He was scared again, but not from the animal, he was scared of Mia, he was scared because now she had to see the truth, if he didn't then she would get killed. But he wasn't a boy anymore, he had to be brave. "Mia…...I'm sorry….I should have told you…." he said with true regret in his voice.

Before she could ask what he meant by that, she heard something come from him.

 ** _SNIKT!_**

His claws popped from between his fingers, blood coaxed them from not being used in so long. Mia's eyes watched with a mixture of shock, confusion, and fear as James raised them up. "Ok furball, let's go!" he shouted before charging forward with a growl that would make Logan proud.

The animal sprinted at full speed, biting into James's shoulder, the mutant jammed his claws into its shoulder blades and pulling down, making the beast drop him and swing it's paw across his face, cutting gashes into James's face. The dog kneeled close to the ground before pouncing at the mutant. James jumped overhead, slicing into the beast's back and flipping his legs forward and landing on them, the two animals turned to face one another, the polarbear dog breathed heavily, it was not backing down. Neither was James.

The polar bear dog pounced again, this time James let it collide with him, stabbing his claws into the Polarbear dog's chest cavity as the beast tore into his throat and ripped it out. "JAMES!" he heard Mia yelled as the bear hybrid fell on top of him. The huntress ran over and started to push the large predator over to try and get to James, he pushed as well, rolling it over onto it's side, she looked down to see James's throat was reforming and the claw marks on his face were just starting to fade. His hands, torso, neck, and hands were covered in blood with some blowback splatter on his face. He started up at her panting as his claws sheathed into his arms.

James sat upright, his coat was in shreds as well as his shirt that was being held together by a few threads. "Mia….I….I…" she hugged hi in a vice grip. James faltered for a moment, his hands wrapped around Mia as well.

"Y-Y-Your alright. How are you alright?" she stuttered out after seeing James's throat being torn out a second ago only to see him without a scratch on him. The storm winds blew over both of them, they decided that his explanation could wait until she set up a storm tent.

After setting up the tent and both of them were inside, Mia tuned on the small lantern that gave both light and warmth. He spent the next three hours explaining his story. Where he came from, how e discovered his powers, what a mutant was and how he had gotten here. She hung onto every word he said, listening intently, barely blinking even until he was finished telling her his tale.

"James…why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asked, hurt clear in her voice.

The mutant looked at the lamp's flame, "Mutants…..back home. We're not welcome, people hate us, they hate us because of our gifts, because of how we look, what we represent. I didn't want….I didn't want to lose you." he admitted bashfully.

Mia was silent for a moment before moving the lantern over to the tent flap, "You are a fucking idiot."

"That's not the reaction I expected." James muttered to himself as Mia reached out on the ground and pulled herself closer so she was in front of him.

""You told me I have a gift. So do you…..I showed you mine…..show me yours." she stated, staring him right in the eyes, her deep blue eyes bore into his. The mutant silently consented he raised his right hand and popped the claws out, the metal reflecting the light from the lantern. Mia stared at the metal claws, reaching her hand up she touched the side of one of them with her finger, "Do they….hurt?" she asked tentatively.

"When they come out? A little bit…..I got used to it." he admitted as she reached her other hand up and grabbed his hand and rotated the hand. When she had finished looking at them , he retracted them back into his forearm. Mia watched as the small cuts in his hand healed before her eyes. "I can hear and smell well too." he added, finding more confidence with her.

Mia's hand was still holding him, the two looked at where her hand was, slowly her fingers entwined with his. Jame's looked up into Mia's eyes who stared back into his. They didn't have that same determined look in them but the fire that fueled it was still there. Her lips captured his before he realized what was happening, she pulled back. His eyes looked into her's like when they met the night she saved him

His lips crashed into her's as she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him back down onto the ground. James pulled away briefly to look at her, her cheeks were dusted pink and she was panting slightly. "Why'd you stop?" she asked.

"Because I have no idea what the fuck we're doing." he said before leaning down and kissing her again, his hands were coaxed in blood so he couldn't dare touch her even though every thought in his head told him to.

She parted their lips, "Me neither." she said before their lips touched once again. The lantern's light went out, they both broke apart and saw in their moment of passion they pulled on the fur floor and extinguished the flame. "Shit, one second." Mia said, crawling out from under James and tried to reignite the flame. James crawled over a second later and to see her progress, the wick was sticking out but her hands were shaking with the matches, from either cold or anticipation to get back to their previous act.

James moved beside her and popped his claws, entwining them together he slid them against one another, making sparks that ignited the wick and brought light and warmth to the tent once again. James and Mia looked at one another before Mia crawled over to him again, before she could kiss him James stopped her by the arms, "I am not complaining whatsoever but I am covered in Polarbear Dog blood and I really think we should talk about this." he said, gesturing to his torso and hands.

Mia snorted, "You know I've been skinning and gutting animals for the past few years now right?" she asked. "And I like you, you're nice, brave, your sweet and what else? Oh yeah, you took on a polar bear dog and won." she pointed out, "I just think that last one is amazingly cool but yea…...I like you." she said honestly, her confidence not wavering.

James bowed his head with shame, "Mia I….I've killed people."

Her hands cupped his cheeks and made him look at her, "James. Did you kill for the right reason? For the greater good?" she asked. James nodded, "Then I don't care…...just tell me everything from here on out ok?" she asked, wanting only his honesty from not own.

James was somewhat surprised, but he smiled nonetheless. "Come here." he said, holding his arms out, Mia smiled before crawling into his embrace, wrapping his arms around her they laid down on the floor. "My body is naturally insulated, I can survive in the cold without clothes so I should keep you warm." he explained.

Mia looked at him with a tad bit of mirth in her eyes, "Really? Well I'll have to keep that in mind." she said, resting her arms underneath her head on James's shoulder as she closed her eyes, welcoming sleep.

III

O

The next morning James and Mia returned to the the Southern Water Tribe, they were a strange sight to behold, especially with James pulling the dead polar bear dog for Mia. They had fabricated a story about Mia had killed the huge beast by herself by saving James who went looking for her. However Mia shot this to bits when she simply told the gathering crowd that they both had killed the beast, and that James had gone at it like a madman with only a knife.

It garnered him a huge reputation with the rest of the tribe, Tonraq himself gave him a strong pat on the back and a firm handshake before he declared a feast was in order. In the Northern district of Harbor City was the feast at the Royal Palace, James sat at the banquet table along with the chief and his lovely wife Senna. Mia sat the other end of the long table, the hall was packed with other hunters and sailors, he looked down the table to see Mia eating her food. She glanced over and gave him a wink, The young man smirked before betting back to eating.

Mia told the story and he listened closely so he could so he wouldn't get any details messed up if he was asked, he still couldn't stop thinking of his and Mia's heated moment of passion the night prior. He spilled his drink while his mind wandered, making a chorus of laughter echo through the hall at his expense, Mia chuckled as well.

After a few hours the feast was starting to wind down, James had a swarm of small kids after him, begging for every detail of their battle with the ferocious beast. He had managed to bait them off by promising to tell them all the details tomorrow and teach them a game he played when he was little. Hockey. He was a little surprised that they hadn't already invented it yet.

The young man was returning from the restroom when he nearly bumped into Mia, the two recoiled from the intended collision, "Oh! Hey, sorry I uh….didn't see you there." he apologized.

Mia was smiling, "Come with me, I got a surprise for you." she said excitedly as she took his hand and led him through the palace to the main hall where the attendees had gathered in rows from the door all the way to the stage where Tonraq stood awaiting him with a small bowl in one hand, it smelled like ink.

James gulped before walking down the row between the attendees up to Tonraq, he spoke loud enough for the entire hall to hear him, "James you ventured out into the middle of a snowstorm to make sure our tribesmen were safe and sound. Even going as far as to risk his own life to save one of our own." he said, Mia nodded her head at her mention. "I see no reason for James to live among us but not be part of us." he said as he directed his gaze at James who had a moderately shocked look on his face.

Tonraq dipped two of his fingers in the ink as he nodded, James kneeled down onto his knee as he lifted his fingers from the bowl. He drew a marking onto his forehead in the shape of a crescent moon, James knew that the moon was a very important symbol to the watertribe culture, he felt honored. "Spirits of the water bear witness to this mark, The Mark of the Brave. This mark is bestowed to those of our tribe who show bravery in the face of danger, with this, you become a honorary member of the Southern Watertribe." he pronounced loudly, James rasing as the hall erupted in applause as James was taken into the tribe.

As James bowed his head to the chief as his wife approached the mutant's side and presented him with a blue watertribe coat, it had the standard white fur collar and light blue coat. On the forearms the light blue was cut off with a white fur cuff with dark blue sleeves stretching down to the hands, beneath the outer light blue layer there was a dark blue zip up undercoat that went up his neck. The light blue outer coat could be buttoned up as well to offer a extra layer of protection, slipping the coat on over his shoulders, he couldn't help but smile with pride at being accepted.

He was part of the Water Tribe, and he felt honored by it.

 **AN: I know I basically took James from Son of Wolverine's backstory and mixed him with Marvel. I actually started a wolverine/legend of korra crossover before I started SoW and got fairly far with it before making the Young Justice crossover. Now this does not mean that Young Justice crossover is done and finished, not by any means. And before anyone asks this also does not take place in the Legendary Spider-Man timeline either, this is just James and no other heroes that were made in LoK's world like in the Spider-man fic.**

 **As for Mia I largely based her appearance on zoro4me3's Atla Oc character Luta, except her hair isn't looped in the back and her backstory and name are changed. You can find a picture of her on deviantart if you're curious. While we're on the subject of waterbenders, I understand that the marks of the brave, wise, and trusted were given after ice dodging, however it has been shown that they are willing to adapt traditions on the Southern Watertribe culture (shown when instead of ice Bato used rocks as a replacement) and given that at the time of legend of Korra there was no indication that the practice was still in use given that a majority of sips had gotten bigger and were more durable.**

 **The only exception being the boat korra left on in book 4 however given that she piloted the ship herself I conclude that it was not meant for the use of going through the rite.**

 **As for the Polar Bear Dog it has been stated that most of them are deadly and will attack, Naga is the only known domesticated PolarBear Dog in the entire series. So a wild one attacking is not uncommon at all.**


	2. Chapter 2: Hunter

III

O

It had been two months since James had become a member of the Southern Watertribe, people greeted him with a friendly tone and a genuine smile. James would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy every minute of it, his job at the docks was met with the same recognition, the other fishermen asking for details of how he and Mia had defeated the Polar Bear Dof in detail. He kept to the story she told, and just like he promised to the little kids he had introduced them to the game of hockey while telling them the more censored version of the story.

The sport had been a big hit with both benders and non benders alike, so much so that they were considering making it an official sport in both the Southern and Northern tribes. He also found that waterbenders made the game more interesting, however there were a few rules, such as not being allowed to use bending to injure anyone or block the goals and the ice must be returned it it's normal state within a minute.

James smiled as he watched a group of preteen kids played their version of the game, using waterbending to make bank shots for the puck. James was proudly wearing his parka he had received as a gift from the tribe, it was surprisingly comfortable for someone who didn't need it. The sound of snow crunching behind him made him take a whiff in the air, "Hi Mia, what are you doing back so early?" he asked, not turning around to look at the huntress. She walked up beside him with her arms crossed over her chest

"Hunt ended early, found some sabertooth elk by the stream to the west and called it a day." she answered, James glanced over to see her looking at him with a smile. Ever since their night together in the tent they been open with each other, James told her about his adventures with the X-Men, his own journeys he had by himself, and from his world in general. She winked at him, "Why? Not happy to see me?" she asked teasingly as she circled around James, her sight locked on him as she walked around in the snow.

Her eyes looked over him, the pair's relationship had become public knowledge, Especially when the two were caught with Mia pinned to a wall while she was biting down on his shoulder, they had been caught by Pao who nearly had a heart attack. Word spread like wildfire through Harbor City and the rest of the tribe shortly after, a few suitors who wanted to catch Mia's interest were disheartened by the news. One of them got enough courage to walk up to James and challenge him to a duel for Mia's hand. Mia clocked him in the jaw and asked the whole bar if there were any other challengers.

Logan would love her.

"Oh I'm happy to see you, just a little surprised is all." he explained, watching as the children played their game. Mia stood still and watched for a moment as one of them scored a point. Mia leaned on his shoulder, a small sign of affection that they showed in public without judgement. While it wasn't uncommon for a young couple like themselves to engage in public shows of affection, the Southern Water Tribe was not as strict as it's sister tribe was years ago. However he could hear the whispers when they were together, James was a member of the tribe but that didn't stop some from being somewhat judgemental about the two. Mia simply told him to ignore them, that there was no use in worrying about what others said about them.

James looked over at Mia, "So…..I'm getting close to the money I need." he said, making Mia frown, they hadn't talked about his plan to go to Republic City since they became a item. But in the back of her mind she knew that it was only a matter of time before they needed to talk about it. "So I was thinking….maybe I wait until I get enough for two." he suggested, making Mia's eyes widen as she looked at him.

He smiled at her, "You…..You're serious?" she asked with a tone of disbelief, he nodded. She couldn't believe he was actually suggesting that she accompany him to the city, the idea crossed her mind of course. But in the same way that one thinks of attacking someone because of one ill directed comment aimed at their person, not as an actual possibility. "What if….I want to stay here?" she asked, it needed to be asked.

His hand reached out, entwining with her gloved fingers together. He looked down at her hand, his mouth felt a little dry, "Then I could use that money to add another bedroom to your house." he suggested. Mia saw his eye's take a glance at her face to gauge her reaction, she was shocked from his suggestion. Her hand slipped out of his, she backed up and James felt dread fill him, he heart her heartbeat speed up as she backed away, however when their eyes once again met she had a smile on her face.

"We don't need another bed." she said as she walked past James, making him look at her with confusion. It sounded like she was saying that he would be sleeping on the couch from here on out, "We have mine." she added, making his head snap over to her as she looked back at him with a small smirk, "This is the part when you follow me back to our hut." she said before lowering her voice to only a volume that only he could hear, "I'll be waiting." she whispered in a taunting voice.

Minutes later Mia's back hit the door to her hut as James pinned her against the wooden door with the young couple kissing one another passionately. James's hands roamed her body freely, his right one reaching around her back and grabbing her rear end and squeezing her plump cheek. Mia let out a moan into his mouth before pulling away, hooking one of her legs behind James as she spoke a single word, "Door."

James leaned back, taking Mia's weight briefly before kicking the door hard enough to slam it open and carry her inside before kicking the door shut with his heel. Their lips found one another's once again, their tongues wrestling for the upper hand as James guided them towards her bedroom, their bedroom. Before James could kick the wood off it's hinges from impatience Mia's hand reached out for the doorknob and opened it, her foot fell back to the ground, the two broke apart, the couple raced to shed their clothes, the layers of clothing littered the floor as they undressed.

As James pulled his long sleeve shirt over his head, Mia had stopped pulling her trousers down to stare, James's body looked as though it was sculpted from rock, all his muscles were in peak physical condition, his core had six abdominal muscles carved out, his pectorals were sculpted perfectly along with his shoulders and biceps. James tossed the shirt aside to see Mia had stopped to admire him before she met his eyes, he reached out and began to help her undress, Mia snapped out of her trance and began pulling at her shirt as she shimmied her pants down and raised her arms for her to be disrobed.

Mia's body had been the object of desire for more than a few men, she noticed the way a few of her fellow hunters would try to mentally undress her before she knocked some sense back into them. However James was the first to see her fully uncovered, she felt her face heat up from the way his eyes trailed down from her collar to her round breast, her pink nipples erect from the coldness of the room. His eyes wet further down, past her navel to the small patch of hair above her lower lips. She turned her head away, a mix of shame, embarrassment, and fear coursing through her mind.

James's lips found her, a short, reassuring peck that made the worry fade away to look at him, "I…...I've never-"

James gave her a half smile, "It's okay, I'll be gentle." he promised, Mia smiled as her hands reached out and slider around his neck, pulling him forward for a proper kiss. His tongue slipped into her mouth as they approached the foot of the bed, the back of her knees hit the edge and she fell onto the fur covers. James pulled his head back, staring down into her eyes she stared back with nervousness. He kissed her bottom lip, gently tugging at it with his own before planting another on her chin, then moving lower down her body to her breasts. His mouth closed around her erect bud, she gasped against the wet tongue circled around the nipple, eliciting a long moan from Mia.

Her hands entangled in his hair pulling him closer to her chest as her head craned back, she bit her lower lip as she tried to quiet herself but failing miserably. James lifted his head to look at her, she immediately noticed James had stopped attending to her mound, "Don't you fucking stop now." she breathed out before gasping for breath. James switched his attention to her her other tit, kneeling the mound as he kissed the bud making Mia's nails dig into his back. "F-fuck, fuck that feels amazing." she breathed out as her knees raised from the floor onto the edge of the bed.

Her hands trailed up his back to the sides of his face as he sucked her tit, "James I-I'm ready." she whispered, hoping that her voice was heard. When he let go of her nub and looked up at her. She crawled further back onto the bed as James got onto fur covered sheets. Mia rose up onto her knees in front of James, climbing into his lap she felt his cock brush against her inner thigh. She finally looked at the length, a mix of nervousness and anticipation. "I thought only your bones were metal." she muttered, making James blush, she lined her lower lips up with the head of his shaft and dropped down onto it fully, her nails dug into his skin as a gasp choked out from her throat as James's hands grabbed her hips somewhat roughly from the sudden sheathing of his manhood. Mia was a virgin before today, James could tell that from just how damn tight she was, "Mnnngghhhh…...fuck." she hissed out from the sharp pain of her broken hymen.

James moved not an inch until he felt Mia's nails loosen their hooks in him, steadying her with his hands he slowly pulled out of her folds gently before pushing forward, her velvety walls hugged his length as it slid through her passage in a slow pace. The waterbender removed her hands from his back and placed them on his shoulders, pulling herself away before pushing herself into him, her breathing started to pick up from the thrusts into her womanhood. James kissed her lips again, their lips locked together as their bodies pushed against one another, she moaned at the sensations he caused with his shaft sheathing into her.

James's body pushed into her with more weight behind it, they fell onto the fur blankets, James's lightly bumped his forehead against her's, "Ow." she broke the kiss.

"Sorry, sorry." he apologized, stopping his movements entirely, hoping she wasn't hurt. Mia smiled at his concern for her, she pressed her lips against his nose, giving him the silent go ahead for him to continue. He pushed into her again, James's head lowered back to her breasts, kissing the orbs of flesh as he thrust into her. Mia's mouth opened to let out a long moan, her hands, it felt like bliss, pure bliss, she thought back to when they first kissed in the tent, they should have fucked right there in the blizzard instead of waiting months. "Harder." she breathed out excitedly, wanting more pleasure.

James leaned back, looking down at Mia he looked over her profile, her round breasts were covered from his kisses, the orbs gently rose and fell with the waterbender's breathing, her flat yet toned stomach led was covered with beads of sweat, "Stare at my tits later!" Mia demanded, snapping James from his trance before slamming his hips into hers. A loud gasp came from the huntress, her legs locked around his back as he drew out of her pussy before jamming himself back in, her breasts jiggled and bounced from his thrusting, Mia cupped her own breasts, squeezing herself to add to her own pleasure.

James kept bucking his hips into her entrance, placing his hands on her hips to yank her onto him when he pushed forward, her walls squeezed his cock, milking it for all it's worth as it slid past her velvet walls, "Fuck...fuck...fuck!" Mia cursed as she felt his member pound into her, the woman's hands trembled on her breasts. James saw her her mouth open but only a primal moan escape from her throat. James's brain was turning to a more primal side, his thrusts became less paced and rapid, causing Mia to cry out in passion while his cock slammed into her moist lips. His fingers dug into her skin, lifting her hips up so he could better plunge into her. Mia had trouble catching her breath, she could feel every inch of him thrust into her as her hands played with her own breasts.

She could feel her orgasm build up, "James I-I'm close! Don't stop! Keep it up!" she yelled, her voice raising in pitch as every thrust weakened her dam. James could feel his own limit begin to come to, he tried pull himself off and finish Mia off some other way but her legs locked around his waist she wasn't letting go. "Mia I'm close-you need to..to…" he could barely form words.

She tightened her legs, before he could he could fight her on this he came, releasing his seed into her with a primal growl that gave Mia goosebumps. The feeling of his warmness spreading through her was all that was needed to push her to the brink, bursting her damn she soaked James's shaft with her pent up nectar, flowing down his length to his pelvis before he slipped out of her gently, her legs having lost their grip on him. James fell on top of Mia, breathing in her scent mixed with his. "Oh….god why didn't we just fuck in the tent?" she asked in a somewhat dazed voice.

"Mia-" James started.

"I mean seriously we waited two months for this! Is that a thing they do on your planet or what?" she asked, obviously still coming down from her high.

"Mia I finished inside you." James stated, still coming down as well.

Mia rolled over onto her side, James could see all of her without shame now, "Yes and it felt amazing." she said dreamily. However James's face was more filled with shock than bliss, Mia rolled her eyes, "I took some tea earlier, prevents girls from getting pregnant. Helps with….other stuff to. So don't worry." she said, her hand reaching out and caressing the stubble on his cheek. He visibly calmed down from that revelation, he took her hand and kissed it tenderly.

"I'm sorry I hurt you." he apologized, he didn't miss the look of pain she had on her face when she seated him within her. He thankfully avoided a sex talk with in father and instead opted for the health class course at the school instead, he knew that for thee girl their first sexual experience came with a painful beginning. However Mia simply shrugged.

"Don't be. If you want be sorry for something, be sorry you ruined all other men for me." she said, her eyes trailing down his body, she still couldn't believe just how muscular James was. _Well he does have metal over his entire bone structure so I guess it shouldn't surprise me._ She thought as her other hand traced a finger down his pectorals to his abs, biting her lower lip as she did. James. He blushed at her praise, she noticed the red cheeks of his and chuckled, "So…..you're staying?" she asked.

He nodded, "I'm staying." he stated as he pulled Mia closer to him so he could kiss the spot where their foreheads bumped together. He inhaled through his nose, the room was covered in their mixed scent, "We smell like sex." he said, "Actually the whole room does to me." he added, realizing it was probably his senses amplifying his olfactory sense.

"Mmmhmm…...what do I smell like?" she asked curiously, James had explained that his senses were better than the average human, she tested this once by heading into the other room and whispering that James needed to shave. He repeated what she said and saying he'll shave as soon as the snow melts outside. James leaned in and pressed his nose against her neck, inhaling her scent.

He thought of the right way to describe it, "You smell like….a smokehouse." he said, making Mia raise an eyebrow at him, "What? You do go there every day." he pointed out, Mia rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Well that's what you recently smell like. You personal smell is like trying to tell you what a fingerprint looks like, it's different for everyone." he explained. It could also be blocked, like if someone covered themselves with blood in a slaughterhouse he couldn't pick them out from the other scents.

Mia pulled at the fur covers down before tossing them over their naked bodies, "You know I think I might need a bigger bed, the two of us in this makes it a little cramped." she observed, they were both crammed into a single bed, she underestimated the space that James and her took up. Noticing that there wasn't much spare room, James lifted Mia up and laid her over his chest. "Mmm. Nice and toasty," she said, enjoying the heat that came from her lover's chest.

James laid his head back onto the pillow, if the rest of his life was anything like today? He would spend the rest of his life here.

III

O

It had taken a few weeks but James had managed to get the materials needed to make a queen sized bed for him and Mia, unfortunately the materials was simply a big block of wood that needed to be carved out from. Now James knew that patience was a virtue, but he desperately wanted to simply pop his claws and get to hacking away parts of the block of wood. He had to drag it up to the hut with a sled and had to carve it out with tools. He was about halfway through the carving process now but it would take another week to finish at this rate.

"How's it coming wild boy?" Mia asked as se opened the door to the hut, looking back he saw Mia in her underclothes, she wore a light blue shirt over her chest with tail-flaps that went down to the sides of her hips with the water tribe symbol on each of them, they were short, stopping just before her thighs with white stitching. On the front of her dress a white rim went from her right hip all the way up to the base of her neck where the cuff of her shirt was, Underneath her light blue shirt she had a dark blue long sleeve short with hourglass stitching going down the outer sides. She still had on her trousers but had a belt on as well with a knife sheath she used for skinning animals, she had been in the skinning hut a few moments ago, dressing a wolf she had slain earlier that morning.

James looked at his progress, he had the four bedposts already cut out from the wood, what he needed was the frame and supports. "It's a work in progress." he said as he stood up from the snow. Mia's hut was fairly large, it was divided into domes for each room, the living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and a dome in the very back where she skinned animals she killed, which was about the size of a garage and acted like one too.

Mia nodded with a playful smile, "Looks like more work than progress." she joked before walking through the snow, James noticed the paper in her hands. She noticed his gaze and held it up to him, "You able to read the headline?" she asked, the vocal language of this earth was english obviously, however the written alphabet was Chinese characters strangely enough. Yet a number of Japanese customs were practiced throughout the world, James knew chinese as a second language by now, chinese too but the writing could easily be mistaken to him since Japanese was based on chinese writing characters.

In short, the entire world was one big mess of asian traditions and customs.

But thankfully he had learned to read with a few months of practice. The headline of the paper was 'Equalist Movement Picks Up Speed in Republic City' with a picture of the equalist kanji surrounded by a red dot on a flag. James frowned, the Equalists reminded him of the bigots back home, only difference was replace the word bender with mutant and they were the exact same thing, racist assholes. Mia noticed his mood turn sour, "Look I know you hate these guys, but look on the bright side, those dickheads aren't here now are they?" she asked.

James sighed as he folded his arms over his chest, "Here or there isn't the point, it's their message. 'Benders are a problem' and they worse yet? They actually have some credibility." he said, turning to the unfinished bed, leaning onto the palm of his hand. Mia gave him a sad look, he had told her of the atrocities committed against mutants, she found it revolting that human beings could sink that low. These Equalists were alike in the sense they hated benders, but unlike the ones James had dealt with they had some valid arguments.

The hundred year war was caused and continued by firebenders because they thought themselves superior, James aliked it to World War Two, when Mia had asked the reasons behind the war he had given them. It was eerily similar to a shocking degree. And even before that a Earthbender was trying to take more land for his own empire before being stopped by the avatar.

She reached over and put a hand on his shoulder, "Look, I know you see the similarities, I do too. But James, it won't be like that…..I believe it. Can't you?" she asked, making James turn to face her, her hand rested on his cheek, his hand slid overtop her's.

"I wish I could Mia…..but I don't…..I've seen this happen before…..it always ends badly." he said sadly, he remembered when Jubilee had told him of the time she had been nailed to a cross on the lawn of the X mansion, or when Geonosia had burned to the ground, taking hundreds of mutant lives with it. Or the M Day incident, making the number of Mutants in the world go down significantly. But when he had to stop young mutants from fighting off a sential invasion of Utopia along with Hope Summers, he realized that being a mutant meant fighting or extinction. Which is why he became a teacher at his father's school after the Schism between X-Men.

He was drawn out of his thoughts by a strange sound coming from the ocean, looking out towards the cliff, he squinted to try and pinpoint the origin. "What's wrong?" she asked, looking out to the sea along with him.

James heard something that sounded like a mix between a roar and a snore, "I think I hear…...have you ever heard someone snore with a clogged nose? Sounds like an animal?" he asked, the strange part was that the sound was elevated, like it was in the air. Soon a white speck came into view. James assumed it was a small bird like creature, however as it got closer, and bigger, and bigger, until it was approaching from overhead and it was about the size of a RV. It was covered head to toe, for which it had six, in white fur. Two horns protruded from its head and a flat tail behind, what baffled James was that it didn't have any sort of wings to stay airborne. As it flew overhead it gave a gruff roar before disappearing over the hilltop.

"Woah….sky bison…..they never come down this far South." she said in awe, James had been shocked by the different types of animals he had seen on this earth. And until recently he thought he had seen enough so that he wouldn't be as surprised, then again that was before he saw a giant hairy thing with horns, six legs, fly through the air with no wings at all.

"I'm gonna get a closer look at it." james said, throwing the tarp over the unfished bed as Mia smirked, James had a way with animals in more ways than one. He had accompanied her once on a hunting trip after showing her what he really was, they had found a wolf drinking near the stream, however before she could take a shot, James stopped her and walked over to the wolf. He knelt down beside it, taking a sip from the stream as well before the wolf noticed him and sniffed him. That was the first time she ever pet a live wolf.

"Just be back before nightfall." she called out as James ran in the direction the sky bison flown.

It had taken him about half a hour to track down the sky bison, after climbing the side of a kill, James picked up the scent of something he didn't expect. Going prone against the snow, he peeked over the hill to see a small compound. It was at the base of a small mountain range, about the size of a military encampment. It was long pentagon with a rounded out top in general shape, the walls were made of thick ice with five guard towers, two near the gate, two near the back, and one in the middle. "Seriously? Who designed that big ass flaw?" He muttered to himself as he scanned the area.

He couldn't see inside the compound except for what looked like a temple on a hill inside but he could smell the beast was in there. What James wanted to know was what was a military grade encampment doing in the South Pole, whose military was mostly Naval? James descended down the side of the kill, keeping close to the ground as he approached the compound. Approaching the rear of the compound, he ran to the corner where the guard tower was on the other side of. He didn't hear anyone in the tower, turning to the wall his claws came out of his knuckles, sticking one of them into the wall, he propped his foot against the ice and pushed himself upwards and sank his other claw in further up before repeating the process with his other hand. _Spider-Man, eat your heart out._ James thought as he came to the top of the wall, just below the guard tower. Hoisting himself up onto the ledge of the wall, he jumped onto the guard railing before vaulting over.

He had a better vantage point of the compound now, in front of the temple there was a large training ground with many obstacles. Walking towards the other side of the tower, he listened inside, ' _I wish there were another way.'_ a male's voice said, he sounded middle aged, and…...somewhat like J. Jonah Jameson?

 _'Wait, there is! If you can't stay here then I'll go back to Republic City with you! It's perfect!'_ a younger feminine voice reasoned.

 _'Absolutely not!'_ an older voice said before hitting a wooden surface. _'The city is far too dangerous, Avatar Aang tasked us with keeping you safe while you mastered the four elements.'_

James's eyes widened, he had heard the avatar by now of course but she was here in the South Pole all along while people like the equalists have been gaining speed? And all because the last one said to keep his next life safe? 'I get that but I don't think keeping me locked up in this compound like a prisoner is what he had in mind.' the female pointed out with frustration. James felt his blood boil at that, they locked her up here for years?

 _God must love stupid people, look how many he made!_ James thought bitterly.

 _'I know this is difficult to accept but now is not the right time.'_ the middle aged man said.

"Well then you must be either stupid or very blind man." James muttered as he jumped over the side of the railing past the wall before taking off in a sprint away from the compound.

III

O

When James arrived back home, he told Mia everything, the compound, the conversation he overheard, and just how dangerous things must be in Republic City because of it. The pair sat in front of the stove, Mia in front of James's spread legs with her back to him, his arms wrapped around her waist, just below her chest, "So…..we're screwed basically." she summed up. If the Equalists really were that big a threat then their movement had to be even more threatening than anyone realizes.

"Well you are. I'm not a bender." James joked, Mia elbowed him in his ribs. "You know I would fight an army for you. For my Tribe right?" he asked. The Watertribe was his home by all means, while it was still a possibility that the X-Men could show up any day but….it has been months, almost half a year. And Daken may not even be here, there has been no signs whatsoever that he could be on this Earth, but even still James was fine with that. But if this place was his home he needed to protect it, fight for it, and he would do just that.

James felt Mia turn around in his lap to face him, "I know…...are you going to though?" she asked, before he could ask she continued, "You've fought for every cause you know is right. And I love that about you James….and if these equalists are a real threat to us, to the south, to benders…...I know you will jump in to fight in a heartbeat." she said, sadness crossed over her face. "And when you hear about these guys….." she said.

"Mia-"

"James." she shot back. "I know you want to fight these guys…...but if you can't because of me I-" James kissed her, stopping her before she could say more.

Pulling away, James looked her dead in the eyes, "I am not leaving." he said with a small reassuring smile, " Mia I may be mad about it but I can't just go running off to fight some guys who are being idiots halfway across the world." he explained, while he may have fought for the Mutant population's rights back home he was not going to start fight every cause he thought was unjust. Besides it wasn't like the benders were in any real danger, and for all the stupid shit the Equalists say, they have never shown any reason to exterminate benders.

MIa let out a breath se had been holding back in her chest, she smirked to herself, "Guess I'm stuck with you." she said before standing up along with James. The young woman leaned in and kissed him on the lips. "Plus you still owe me a bigger bed." she added, making James tilt his head back and groan in annoyance, he forgot about the stupid bed.

"...well they might need my help." he joked, making Mia kock her knuckles against his forehead. Still though, it was more than concerning that the Avatar was being kept down in the south against her own will. What about her parents? Did she even have any? These thoughts were pushed aside when Mia snapped her fingers in front of his face, "What?' he asked, blinking at the waterbender.

She rolled her eyes, "I was saying that if you even think of leaving we'll find out just how long it takes for your male bits to grow back." she threatened jokingly, James suddenly aware that her hunting knife was pointing at the front of his pants. The blade itself was decent in terms of size, about seven inches long not counting the leather wrapped handle, it was curved in shpe lightly with one side rigged with wolf teeth so it could be used like a sawblade. She chuckled when she saw the startled look on his face turned to a smirk that she herself mirrored, "I'm heading to bed, I got a early hunt next morning." she said as she turned around towards the bedroom.

James followed in behind her a few moments later after turning off the lights, walking into the bedroom he saw Mia had crawled under the fur covers of the single sized bed, Mia's head poking up from underneath the covers. The fire in the living room kept the temperature below freezing at all times, however it still could get cold in the hut, it was the South Pole after all. James disrobed before sliding under the blankets, Mia draping herself over his body for warmth. "That bed is getting finished by the end of the week I swear to god." he muttered, causing the waterbender to chuckle.

James shut his eyes and thought about today, it was certainly one of the most exciting he had in awhile. Not that he minded his day to day lifestyle, it was very refreshing from what he had grown up with. However…...you can only pull in fish so many times before you start to get bored with it. "Hello Brother."

James sat up with his eyes wide open, standing at the foot of the bed was Daken, and in front of him was a terrified looking Mia was hand over her mouth. James was frozen, his mind was trying to play catch up with him, how the hell did Daken sneak into the hut?! His half brother looked at Mia, "She's quite lovely. I can't fault you with your taste in women." he complimented as Mia bit into his hand, trying to get him to let go, "She's a fighter too! Laura would love her." he added before looking at James.

The shock had been replaced with anger, bordering on rage, but he anything he did would only endanger Mia. "Please Daken. Let. Her. Go." he said slowly and calmly as he could possibly manage without gritting his teeth.

The other son of Logan looked at him, then at Mia, "Alright…..you can have her."

Daken's other claws tore through her chest., splattering blood onto the bed as her eyes, wide with disbelief, stared at James's

James stood with a roar of rage as his claws unsheathed. "James!' the young man looked around for the source of the voice, he was in bed again, but Daken was nowhere to be seen. Instead in the doorway was Mia, covered in a fur blanket to cover her mostly bare skin. Her eyes were wide with fear but mixed with concern, James looked at his cands, his claws were out and cut in through the furs. He quickly retracted them before holding his head in his hands, trying to get his breathing under control, he heard footsteps patter towards him before feeling her weight on the bed, "James….what's wrong?" she asked. When he didn't respond, she reached out and took ahold of his wrists and pulled them down so she could look at him. "Talk to me."

He let out a shaky breath, "Daken…..my brother…..he was here and he had you…...he said he'd let you go but…..but…" he didn't want to finish. Mia looked at him sorrowfully before leaning forward and planting a kiss on his forehead before James could finally calm himself down enough so his breathing was not as erratic. "I'm sorry…...I thought-"

She shushed him, "It's ok….it's ok." she said reassuringly, pressing her hand to his chest until he fell back onto the bed. Mia untangled the blanket around her, before draping it overtop of them. James's arms wrapped around her tightly, clinging to her to make sure she was real and not a dream. "...do you get nightmares like that often?" Mia asked.

James inhaled through his nose before slowly letting it out, "Once in awhile…...nothing like that though." he said as Mia lifted herself up from is chest to look him right in the eyes, "It's just…...Mia you're the first person…...Daken killed my family. My mom, dad, brother, the people who raised me….and after that I only had my birth father and sister. And I love them too but…...they're like me…..you though…..you don't heal from a knife in under a minute." he said, lifting his hand from her waist to caress her cheek. Mia leaned into his palm, her eyes trained on James, 'I don't want to lose you…...i refuse to."

Mia let his words sink in, pulling away from his hand, she leaned down to James's lips and kissed him. The two lovers embraced, Mia's kiss melted his fears and worries away as she pushed his lips apart and slipped her tongue into his mouth. The kiss was slow and tender, not like ones they shared with heated excitement making them rush in the act for the thrill. It was loving, and when she pulled herself away she looked into James's eyes, "You won't…..I promise." she said before laying her head down beside his. James smiled before shutting his eyes once again,"You owe me a new fur blanket though."

"I will hunt one down tomorrow I swear." he responded quickly.

Mia smiled, "Good wild boy."

III

O

The next day, James was out before Mia woke up, after getting dressed she had found a note saying that he would be back before noon. She still had a hunting party to go on, walking around the house to the shed, she pulled out her spear and bow before slinging her quiver over her back. The hunting party met up near the outskirts of Harbor City at the pens where they kept the animals the tribe used for farming, arctic hens, yaks, and other domesticated animals. Near the gate leading out to the tundra was the stables. Usually they used snowmobiles for for transport, however gas was low for them so they would be usung Snow Leopard Caribou as mounts.

Walking into the wooden stables, she went to the pen at the end where her mount was, "Hey there Nyla!" she greeted excitedly. In the enclosed space was a large feline about half the size of a Polar Bear Dog in terms of fight but just as long. T had the appearance of a giant leopard with white coat and dark blue spots, bt with the addition of two antlers on either side of it's head. Nyla uncurled itself before stretching out it's front paws and lifting it's hind into the air, it's tail curling over it's back as it stretched. Strolling up to her owner, the feline pressed it's head into her chest and purred.

"Aw, who's happy to see mommy?" she asked in a babying tone. Nyla had been bred in captivity and raised since she was a cub. However she had a attitude, she swiped at all the hunters who tried to ride her. Mia however was just as stubborn, when she took a paw swipe at Mia, she backed away before trying again. When Nyla raised her paw, Mia didn't so much as flinch, she simply stared the feline down. The two had been thick as thieves since then.

She could build Nyla a stable and take her home, however to do that they would need to go through the city. And the Snow leopard Caribou was not a fan of crowds. Not to mention she had no idea how she would react to James. Nyla had a almost little sister instinct around Nyla, one time one of the other hunters playfully leaned on her shoulder and flirted and Nyla nearly pounced on him. Now James could obviously take care of his own but she didn't want the two trying to kill each other over her. "Wonder how his day is going so far?" she muttered to herself.

(Meanwhile)

James was fighting a polar bear.

Ok a little backtracking was required to understand who this came to be of course. James awoke early this morning to get to work early and see if he could finish early so he could find a new fur blanket for Mia's bed. However when he arrived at the dock with the fishing boats, James saw Old Man Pao talking to a man in a uniform that were dark blue and bright white, almost ivory colored, with helmets bearing a lotus insignia on the front. "Are you just stupid or are you just trying to make me mad? Keep it up and you'll be playing pick up sticks with your teeth you pointy nosed, pencil necked-" Pao started as he poked his finger into the man's chest as he backed away.

Pao was very creative with how he trash talked, he made it an artform, Logan could barely match him with the words he weaved together to form a insult. James stepped in between them, turning to the man in uniform, "Um, you might want to talk with someone who won't fly off the handle." he said, trying to hold Pao back until he calmed down, The man in uniform fixed his helmet before speaking.

"As I was telling mister Pao here. Ships are banned from leaving port until further notice, by order of the White Lotus." the guard explained. James let out hum of understanding. Mia had explained to him that the White Lotus were integral to ending the hundred year war by retaking the Earth Kingdom Capital, and had turned from a secret order to what SHIELD was back home. AS the guard walked away to go inform other dockheads, Pao stomped off mumbling to himself.

The shops didn't open until later so James decided to go on a stroll through the tundra. James loved how similar the South Pole was to the canadian wilderness, only with less trees. James found himself wandering through the snow, when he caught a scent in the air, he looked down at the ground to see a bear track. Kneeling down he inspected the track, it was fresh, not even a hour old. Breaking into a jog he followed the tracks to the top of a hillside where on the other side, a polar bear was walking through the snow.

James couldn't help but smile, the last time he had seen a normal looking animal was back pn his earth. The bear turned to look at him before growling….a polar bear pelt would bake a good blanket.

Three minutes later James ducked under a paw swipe with claws that would have cut into his face. James slashed the animals' side, spilling blood onto the snow. He wanted to kill the animal quickly. His father had taught him that hunters must respect their prey, and prolonging a animal's suffering was simply cruel. The bear fell onto it's front paws, James used the opportunity to jam his claws into the skin above it's shoulder into it, stabbing the beast in the heart and killing it quickly. As the beast fell to the ground dead, james retracted his claws back into his forearms, and now came the chore of dragging it back to the hut….shit.

III

O

Mia had led Nyla to the north slopes, the half of the hunters went deep into the wilderness to hunt while the other stayed close to the village to see if anything was near, winter would be here soon and they needed to stockpile on food before it hit. While the South did receive regular shipments of food from other parts of the world, the South did need to find their own food sources. "Man it's dead out here. Can't believe I got out of bed for this." Mia said as she looked through her binoculars for any movement on the snow banks, since most wildlife in the south pole was white in color, the key to hunting was looking for movement.

But there was nothing, Nyla let out a low whine. Mia bent down to pet her neck, "Hey I'm all for spending time together but I have a nice warm bed at home. And a very nice guy to share it with, whom does not get cold. Meaning I can hog blankets." she explained to the feline before she saw something in the distance, a trial of blood. A consistent trail of blood, following it she traced it back to a dead polar bear….who was being dragged by-"You have gotta be shitting me." she said before kicking Nyla, mushing her forward towards her boyfriend.

James dragged the beast through the snow by it's foot. "Ok are you just trying to show off now!?" James turned his head to see Mia riding atop a leopard with antlers. The beast lid to a stop with Nyla hopping off and running over. "Seriously how the hell did you find this big bastard?" she asked, looking over the massive animal.

"Hi by the way. I'm doing fine." James greeted, making Mia roll her eyes before walking over and kissing him on the cheek. Nyla tacked him a second later, as Mia shouted for the predator to get off,him, James looked at the creature. It had it's fangs bearing and was growling, James was calm on the other hand, he felt that it was just being protective of Mia. The feline's growl lowered until it was yanked by the scruff of it's neck by Mia. "No! Nyla he's a friend! Bad Girl! Very bad girl!" she chastised the mount as she pulled her off James.

James stood from the ground and brushed the snow off him, "And who is this?" he asked, gesturing to the large animal. Nyla's yellows eyes stared at him, James simply dug into his pocket and pulled out some seal jerky he had bought before going out and held it out to the feline.

"Nyla, she's my snow leopard caribou. And she is kinda overprotective." she explained as the animal sniffing at the cooked meat before backing away to Mia who petted her. "Sorry I didn't tell you about her, she really only likes me and…..your history with animals…" she gestured to the dead polar bear. In all fairness James has killed just about every animal that the two of them have come across.

"Hey I love animals!" James proclaimed, raising his bloodied hands up in his defense. James saw the blood on them before lowering them, "Okay I can see your point, but I would never kill a pet." he said, Nyla growled at the term. The mutant took a cautionary step back, not wanting to upset Mia's companion. However the waterbender reached into the bag on the mount's saddle and took out what looked like a treat before holding up to Nyla's mouth. The animal sniffed the food before purring and rubbing her antler against Mia affectionately.

"She's not my pet. She's my partner." she said with a smile as she rubbed the base of the mixed animal's antlers. James smiled, Mia hadn't introduced him to her friends but mainly due to the fact Mia didn't have many herself, Nyla was clearly important to her. And if the big kitten was important to her, she was important to him. "Seriously though what are you doing out here with a dead polar bear? Shouldn't you be out on the water?" she asked.

James shook his head, "White Lotus closed the ports down, no ships are allowed to leave." he explained as Mia went to what looked like a sled on the back of her saddle. Pulling it apart so a thick cloth was supported by two long parallel pieces of wood with retractable supports, she laid it down and fastened a belt to the back of Nyla's harness. It was a stretcher for animal bodies. Mia grabbed the back paws while James grabbed the front ones and pulled the dead polar bear onto the sled.

"Seriously? That doesn't happen unless it's a public emergency, and for that the sirens in Harbor City go off." she said as she placed one foot on the foothold of Nyla's saddle, James was about to climb on to before the cat let out a growl of warning. Mia snorted a laugh, "Guess you have to ride in back." she said, pointing to the dead polar bear. James sighed before sitting down on the sled, which obviously was not made for comfort, before Mia ushered Nyla forward and and turned her towards the hunting encampment.

III

O

The hunting encampment was just inside the gate to Harbor City. It was similar to a farm in a sense, there was a large barn where they kept the Buffalo Yak, a pen for the arctic hens beside it, and a stable for all the mounts beside the gate. The gate itself was about three stories tall that was opened and closed with a system of weights, in the center was the watertribe symbol split down the middle. On the opposite end of the small enclosed area was a gate that led into the city. James hadn't visited before, he usually went to the docks to work and then into the city to buy goods, go out with Mia, or just to waste time.

There were a number of hunters in training who gathered around the Polar Bear, most of them younger than both, most of them asked how Mia killed the large carnivore. "Alright you little parasites, get the sled to the butcher's shack but tell him that the pelt is mine. I'll tell you the story later." she ordered, the pre teens all gathered around the shed and pushed it towards the butcher's. James walked up beside her questionably, he had seen her take kills home before and do the work in the back. When she saw his confused expression she explained, "Most of my kills go the butcher, the butcher sells them to the village and to the people. But we each have a cap to our kills we kill too much and we risk wiping out the species all together, but if there's too much we can take some home for ourselves." she explained.

James nodded in understanding, "We have something like that in place, back on my earth we hunted dodo birds to extinction." he said, Mia snorting into her glove. "What?" he asked.

"A what bird?" she asked, holding her gloved hand below her chin.

"A Dodo bird." Mia snorted into her hand again, James smiled as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What is so funny?" he questioned.

She let herself snicker a few more seconds before speaking, "You tell me our animals are crazy but you have something called a Dodo bird?" she catching sight of Chief Tonraq enter through the gates with a gaas can in each hand. Mia waved to get his attention as she ran over, "Hey chief need a hand?" she asked as James followed after her.

The man smiled at them, "I'd appreciate it Mia."

Mia pointed to James, "Oh no I'm volunteering James." she said, making him look at her pointedly, "What? Yo didn't need to work today, go on work for your share." she said jokingly as she pointed to a smiling Tonraq. James sighed before taking one of the gas cans, thinking of ways to get back at Mia for that later, maybe in private.

"Chief Tonraq, are all women in the watertribe like this?" he asked as he took the can from the chieftain's hand and walked along with the chief to the snowmobiles.

The man let out a chuckle, "No. They're not." he said, making Mia slug James's shoulder. "I must say James I'm happy to see you feel at home here, most people who come down to the south can't wait to leave." he observed.

James shrugged, "The south kinda reminds me of home. Back home it's cold, close knit, and a little dangerous if you're not careful." he explained, thinking to when Laura's 'training' was him getting mauled by a black bear for about ten minutes before she yelled at him to just kill it.

"Really? Where did you grow up?" Mia's eyes widened as she looked over at James looked at Tonraq calmly.

"A little town in the northern part of the world, not the pole but we had more mountains and trees…..and bears." he shuddered a little bit. "But other than the temperature it's just like home." he said before looking at Mia with a smirk, "Plus the beds are warm…..well Mia's is anyway" Mia's face flushed red from embarrassment as Tonraq let out a hearty laugh, she tried elbowing him in the ribs, however that made her yelp slightly from hitting her funny bone against metal.

Before Mia could speak, the doors to the tundra opened with shouting coming from the other side, the doors opened and in rode the hunting party from the Tundra.

"Someone get a healer!" one of them yelled out, a sled rode into the hunting compound drawn by a dozen or so Polar Dogs. Mia and James rushed over as the other hunters dismounted their rides and surrounded the sled, the hunter was in agony with a arrow in his shoulder, his shoulder was covered in blood and the bleeding wasn't stopping even with the bandage over it. "Move aside!" James was pushed aside as a older man looked over the hunter who had been hurt. He was older, his grey hair slicked back into braided ponytail that went down to his shoulder blades, he was a large fit man as well, "What happened?"

"We-we-we-were stalking a arctic fox. He was going to lead it back to me by scaring it from the other side of the ridge. He went out there and then he started screaming a few minutes later!" his hunting partner explained in a panic as his friend writhed in agony on the sled. As he spoke, James smelled something familiar.

Poison. It smelled rancid.

Kneeling down James pulled back the bandages covering the wound, "What are you doing!? He'll bleed out you idiot!" one of the hunters shouted as he tried to grab James, Mia stopped him. She looked as he pulled the bandage aside to look at the wound, the skin around the wound was discolored beneath the blood. The arrowhead must have been poisoned, James took a look at the arrow, placing a hand on the hunter's chest, he looked at James with panic, "W-Wh-What are you-"

"Sorry in advance." the mutant apologized before he used his other hand to grip the shaft of the arrow and yank it out, making the hunter to scream out as blood spurted out. The older man fastened the bandages back into place, "The healer is taking too long we need to move him to them." James observed as he listened to the hunter's heartbeat, it was fast. James looked at the wounded man, "Look I know it hurts but that arrow was poisoned, you gotta calm down ok?" he asked the man who looked at him then to his wound before taking a deep breath and nodding.

"Ok Kran, Sumai, get to the healer's and tell her we're on our way." the older man shouted, two teens nodded before running towards the snowmobiles. The man turned to Mia, "Mia I want you to take some men and find who shot him." he ordered. James looked between him and his lover, she nodded firmly before she looked and James and tilted her head, silently challenging him to tell her otherwise. James stood up and nodded at her, Mia could take care of herself.

Mia looked to the hunter's partner, "Yuma take us to where you two were hunting, James, you are with me." she said, her boyfriend nodding in agreement.

"I'll go too." Tonraq added, making the two stiffen. Mia's plan was for James to track the archer down and the both of them capture them. However the chief coming along simply made that not possible, however they couldn't tell the Chief of the tribe not to go because it would look suspicious as hell. But also he was a capable fighter who can handle himself, and wouldn't take no for an answer. So they nodded as Tonraq went to get one of the snowmobiles.

When he was out of earshot James sighed, "We gotta find the guy fast, poison can be quick and deadly or slow and painful. Quick is better, maybe another set of eyes can help?" he suggested hopefully as the two approached Nyla. James glanced over at the hunter who's friend had been poisoned, Mia called him Yuma. He was strong young man, he wore a blue bandana over his head that was tied in the back, he had a number of knives on his belt along with a hatchet in his one hand, he was in a slight panic.

Mia mounted Nyla, and when James made a move this time the feline didn't protest this time. James locked his arms around Mia's waist as Tonraq drove the snowmobile up beside them, "Keep close, we don't want anyone else getting hurt." he said before Yuma rose ahead on a polar camel with the other three following him.

III

O

The group of four came to a stop near the foot of a hill, on the opposite side was where the hunter had been shot. The hill rested before a mountainside, which James assumed is where the archer shot from. Peeking over the hilltop with her binoculars, Mia scanned the side of the mountain for any sign of the archer, "I don't see anyone, they could have left." she said before retreating down the hill to where the others are. "Yuma did you see anything when you ran over? Any movement at all?" the waterbender asked.

Yuma shook his head as he paced, "No nothing. Look why are we ere anyway? We could go back and get a whole hunting party together to track this guy down." he said, gesturing to the way they came from Harbor City.

"Because the tip was poisoned. And even if the healer can cure him this guy will still be out here with poisonous arrows, and next time he may get both of you. Besides, if the healers can't do anything for your friend, the archer will probably be carrying a antidote for it." he explained, Laura had explained that some poison users tested their poison on themselves to see the effects and cured themselves with a antidote so they don't die. Stupid but only a small percent of them did that, mostly they carried one around for their own safety.

Yuma breathed before nodding, "Ok so he's probably still up on the mountain then….what do we do?" he asked.

"Mia and you will cover James and I while we scale the mountain." Tonraq explained, James nodded at the idea along with the others. Just as James was about to walk over the hill, Mia leaned over and kissed him on the cheek for luck. As James and Tonraq climbed up the face of the mountain, which was not steep enough for them to use both arms and legs, while James sniffed the air for any scent. The young man heard a few rocks slide slightly beneath their feet, meanwhile down below, Mia was watching the rocks above them like a hawk along with Yuma.

She looked over to Yuma, the guy clearly felt guilt over what happened to his friend, Mia never took a hunting a partner, her mentality was to hunt what she could by herself. She could only imagine what that would be like to be in Yuma's shoes "Yuma….I'm sorry." she said sympathetically. The hunter looked over at her and gave a small smile, before he could speak however, something flew over their heads towards the mountain.

Tonraq felt something bump into him, looking over he saw that james had been knocked into him by the force of a arrow to the chest. Tonraq looked down to the ground and further down the slope from where Mia and Yuma were was the archer.

His face was hidden behind a mask that completely covered his face, the eyes were green glass with a yellow rebreather that started at the cheeks and curved around to the top of the head, on the forehead was a red circle. The suit he wore looked similar to a old aviator jacket with heavy cargo pants.

Mia turned on a heel as the man drew his bow and fired. Out of reflex Mia raised her hands, the snow in front of her became water and hit the arrow in mid flight, knocking it off course and into the hillside. As the equalist drew another arrow Yuma charged with his hatchet, as he swung it downward, the man blocked the hatchet with his bow before swinging it forward into Yuma's face, making him fall back into the snow. While this went on Tonraq helped James onto his back, "James! Are you-"

James yanked the arrow out of his chest with a growl before standing up, "-ok?" he asked, more confused when James stood up and ran down the side of the mountain at full speed.

Shooting him with a arrow? James was almost used to it at this point, but shooting one at his girlfriend? James hod only been this mad a few times in his life. The man fired another arrow at Mia, however at that moment, James had lept down from the top of the hill and landed in front of Mia, the arrow striking him in his eye. "Gahhh! Asshole!" he growled out before tearing out the arrow and his eye, he ran forward as the man shakily loaded another arrow and fired, James lifted his arm to take the arrow's poison. Poison was burning through his veins but his healing factor would take care of it.

Before the man could load another shot however, James popped his claws in his left hand and cut through the bow easily before stabbing him in the abdomen. The man screamed as he fell to his knees, clutching his wound. As james stood above him, he realized what he had just done, turning around he saw Tonraq looking at him with absolute shock, and Mia with dread.

James turned back, Yuma looked like he was scared out of his mind. James shook his head before looking down at the masked man, grabbing him by his collar, he lifted him up. "Alright shit stain." he spat out as he dragged him over to Tonraq.

The chieftain regained what composure he could, James made him kneel before the chief, "You shot one of my people with a poisoned arrow. Now you are going to help us cure him." he said.

The man stared up at the chief through his green goggles, 'Why would I help a filty bender like you?" he asked, James sneered before kneeling in front of him holding his fist up in front of his face.

"Because if you don't?" _SINKT!_ "I will start taking off fingers with these." Before the man could respond, Yuma slammed a arrow from his quiver into him, making him cry out in pain. The three looked up at Yuma in shock, "What the hell?!" he asked before Yuma pushed james aside.

"Either you show me your antidote, or you slowly die of your own poison like my best friend!" he threatened, grabbing the shaft of the arrow before twisting it and making the man scream out in pain. James meanwhile looked at Yuma in shock, if this guy was a hunter than what was a Watertribe warrior like?

The man reached for his pocket but Yuma beat him to it, he pulled out a small flask, "NO! I need that! I-I-I don't want to die!" he cried out. Yuma raised his foot and kicked him in the face, knocking him out. Yuma looked at the rest of them, "We'll bring him with us." he said before his eyes trained on James, "Then…..you have some explaining to do."

III

O

They made it to the healer's hut outside the city before nightfall, James and Mia waited outside while Tonraq and Yuma went inside. Mia's hand was holding his, "So….today was eventful." Mia said, making James snort out a short laugh. Mia looked out to the city was the streetlamps began to illuminate the city of ice, a small part of her wanted to take James and run but that would just be foolish. They needed to face the music, but the way Yuma looked at him…..it unnerved her.

"This was actually a really uneventful one for me…..then again I hung out with the X-Men. No days were easy going." he explained, the school was blown up and destroyed so many times that James honestly lost track. He looked at mia, sucking her lower lip in as she looked out to the city, "Mia…..i-"

"I'm sticking with you." she interrupted. The waterbender lifted his hand up, "This…...I haven't had anything like this…...and I don't want to lose it. I don't care if they banish you, if you go? I go, end of story." she said, looking him dead in the eye.

James stared at her before he kissed her, the door behind them opened and they broke away quickly. Looking behind them, they saw Yuma in the doorway, "Alright…..come in." he said simply. Mia and James stood up, Yuma stared at James as he walked by, his regrown eye kept trained on what was in front of him. The hut they were in was on four support beams, they were currently inside a waiting room like area with a long couch and a few chairs, Tonraq was sitting on the couch with a chair in front of him, he gestured to James to sit down.

Taking a seat in the chair, Mia stood off to the side, her arms crossed over her chest anxiously, "James. I want you to explain to me what happened today." he said in a calm manner. James saw he was looking at him not with fear or nerves, but with inquisition. James took a deep breath before spilling everything.

They sat there for a full hour before James finished explaining everything, '-and when He shot at Mia…..I just acted. I went after him and I would do it again in a heartbeat." he said, stealing a glance at Mia, seeing a small smile flicker across her lips. Tonraq sat quietly, letting this information sink in, James sighed, "Chief Tonraq….I know I lied to you. To everyone…..and I'll accept any punishment…..but Mia was simply helping me because I needed it…..she shouldn't share my fate,"

MIa opened her mouth to argue but Tonraq spoke first, "James…...while I am disappointed that you lied. I Understand why you did." he started, making Yuma, James, and Mia look at him in shock. "You took a arrow for me without thinking, you leapt to Mia's aid out of instinct, and you helped save a man's life today. I don't see any reason that you should be punished. You're different, but that doesn't change what kind of person you are." he said, making James and Miia let out a collective breath. "You two can head home, but I do want to speak with the both oof you tomorrow." he said, the two nodding before taking their leave.

When they left, Yuma turned to Tonraq, 'Chief you can't be-You saw what he did! It's not natural!" he protested.

Tonraq stood from his seat, "Yuma I know what we saw was a little unnerving-"

"He took a arrow in his eye and pulled it out! And grew it back! He's a freak!" the hunter protested.

"Yuma." Tonraq said firmly, making him shut up, "I thought the exact same thing at first. But then I thought if it were me, would I have done the same? And the answer is yes, I would." he explained, "He shouldn't be punished for what he is. No one should be." he said, Yuma reached his arms back behind his head, trying to wrap his mind around it. "You are not to tell anyone, not unless he wants to. Understand?" he asked, Yuma grit his teeth for a moment but relaxed before nodding. Tonraq put a hand on his shoulder, "James has only helped people since he came here. He hasn't done anything to warrant a witch hunt."

Yuma turned in a huff towards the door where his partner was resting in, "If he does though chief? I'll put a spear through him." he said before shutting the door behind him.

Tonraq sighed, this was not how he expected today to turn out.

 **AN: yeah this is going to be a very mature story, which is why I am also publishing this on Ao3 as well, between the sex, gore, and course language this might actually get taken down. Hopfully not but still, pays to have a backup right? Until next time everyone.**


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